Preparing for Careers WebQuest
by Janet Bowman
Introduction ·
Question ·
Background Info ·
Individual Roles ·
Group Process
Rubric ·
Conclusion ·
Teacher's Guide
Introduction ·
Question ·
Background Info ·
Individual Roles ·
Group Process
Rubric ·
Conclusion ·
Teacher's Guide
Introduction
Why are you in school today? I hear you...'Mom made me' or 'isn't it the law?' Is that really why you are in school?
Let's pretend for this assignment that mom didn't make you and there aren't any school laws. Would you still be in school? Is there a reason you may want to get an education?
Today, let's determine what you may want to learn in order to get a job and make a living someday in the future.
Guess what: you're going to use the Web for learning. And grabbing someone else's ideas without giving them a close look is worse than silly. Think of it as intellectual slavery. So let's break the chains.
As a group you're going to explore the topic of Preparing for Careers. Each member of your team will become an expert on one career cluster. Then you'll have to come back together to answer a question that gets to the heart of career preparation. We want you to do a good job, so why not read the evaluation rubric for this WebQuest?
The Question
The main question you will be asked to find an answer for is:
What skills do we as workers need for future careers?
Background Information
Before becoming an expert on your career cluster, we'd better make sure that everyone on your WebQuest team knows the trends affecting our society. Use the links below to answer the six general questions: who? what? where? when? why? and how? Make sure everyone on your team can answer all the questions before moving into your individual roles.
Predictions for a millennium Read about trends in our society.
Top 10 Forecasts from Outlook 2000 Read about ten predictions for change.
What Do They Do? Read more about careers in your cluster.
Bureau of Labor Statistics What is the employment situation in the Upstate of South Carolina now?
Individual Roles
Now that you have some overall background knowledge, it's time to return to the main question for this WebQuest. Questions this big and important are better answered when a few people are working on it at one time. Things work even better when a group of you decide to look at the question from different perspectives. This way team members can become experts on different aspects of the question and then come together to poll their learning. This is where team work pays off. So are you ready to divide and conquer this question?
Production Worker
Use the links below to learn more about your role. Specifically, look for answers to the following questions:
1)What skills do a production worker need today?
2)What skills will a production worker need in the future?
After studying the skills needed in your career cluster, you will work with your group to assemble a list of common skills needed by all clusters.
As a final thought--DO YOU HAVE THE SKILLS NEEDED FOR FUTURE CAREERS?
- Production Occupations
- Read about Production occupations.
- Career Planning--Production Worker
- Explore the jobs in production.
- Production Careers
- Read more about careers in production.
Help Page: Strategy for Analyzing the Parts of the Topic
Service Worker
Use the links below to learn more about your role. Specifically, look for answers to the following questions:
1)What skills do a production worker need today?
2)What skills will a production worker need in the future?
After studying the skills needed in your career cluster, you will work with your group to assemble a list of common skills needed by all clusters.
As a final thought--DO YOU HAVE THE SKILLS NEEDED FOR FUTURE CAREERS?
- Service Occupations
- Read about Service occupations.
- Career Planning--Service Workers
- Explore the jobs in the service industry.
- Service Careers
- Read about other service occupations
Help Page: Strategy for Analyzing the Parts of the Topic
Sales Worker
Use the links below to learn more about your role. Specifically, look for answers to the following questions:
1)What skills do a production worker need today?
2)What skills will a production worker need in the future?
After studying the skills needed in your career cluster, you will work with your group to assemble a list of common skills needed by all clusters.
As a final thought--DO YOU HAVE THE SKILLS NEEDED FOR FUTURE CAREERS?
- Sales Occupations
- Read about careers in Sales.
- Career Planning--Sales Occupations
- Explore the careers in sales.
- Sales Careers
- Read more about sales careers
Help Page: Strategy for Analyzing the Parts of the Topic
Transportation Worker
Use the links below to learn more about your role. Specifically, look for answers to the following questions:
1)What skills do a production worker need today?
2)What skills will a production worker need in the future?
After studying the skills needed in your career cluster, you will work with your group to assemble a list of common skills needed by all clusters.
As a final thought--DO YOU HAVE THE SKILLS NEEDED FOR FUTURE CAREERS?
- Transportation Careers
- Read about careers in the transportation industry.
- Career Planning--Transportation Occupations
- Explore careers in transportation.
- Transportation Careers
- Read more about transportation careers.
Help Page: Strategy for Analyzing the Parts of the Topic
Group Synthesis
Congratulations! Your team is now full of expertise. Each person (or pair) on your team have become experts on the topic of Preparing for Careers. You've all learned a lot of information. But guess what, gathering useful information isn't the same as truly understanding a topic. What experts in the field of learning suggest is that you now use that information in a new and challenging way. Then you'll really know about this topic.
So with your team members all gathered together, carefully read and try answering the main question for this WebQuest. See where you all agree and where differences arise.
Use information, pictures, movies, facts, opinions, etc. you explored to convince your teammates that your viewpoint is important and should be part of your team's answer to the Task / Quest(ion).
Your WebQuest team should write out a list of skills needed for all future careers that everyone on the team can live with. Compose a letter to the North Central Regional Educational Lab at the address below. Ask if their research supports your conclusions. Your group will write letters to human resource supervisors of local businesses in the Upstate area to have them list skills they think employees should have. Your group will report results in a newsletter which will highlight the results of the WebQuest. This newsletter will be published the month before students in the eighth grade begin their 4-year educational plan.
Your group will prepare a web page as the culminating activity explaining the five most important skills needed for future careers as reported by human resource supervisors of local businesses.
Library of the Workplace Why do we need to know this?
Real World Feedback:
North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, info@ncrel.org
Conclusion
At the beginning of this activity, you were asked about the truth. Did you discover it? Was there only one truth? Did everyone on your team think so? How did you answer the main question for this WebQuest? Have you checked the evaluation rubric to guide what you did?
You deserve a lot of praise for all the work you've done. And so does your brain. You've sure put that gray stuff to the test. You gained background information, developed expertise in one particular area and got into some pretty expert analysis. At times, you must have felt confused with ideas spinning every which way. That's normal when you're building new mental connections. It's funny, with each link between what you already knew and the new learning going on, you broke another different kind of link, remember the intellectual slavery we spoke about earlier? You're free! How will you use these ideas and strategies as you continue to grow and learn? It's all up to you. Good luck.
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created by Janet Bowman email: BowmanJH@Spartanburg6.k12.sc.us http://www.web-and-flow.com/members/jbowman2/careerwebquest/webquest.htm |